What is This Thing?

[TromboneAl]

I was cleaning out a box of old cables, eliminating the one's I'll never use again, and came across this. I have no idea what it is, do you?

 

[Rustic23]

looks like some sort of remote.

 

[rocketdog]

Looks like an adapter or transformer gizmo. Is there another opening for an audio jack in the boxy end? Perhaps a different size?

 

[whitestick]

Believe that is a cord that plugs into a RF (radio waves) type of remote control, for use with a stand along cable or satellite (DirectTV) box for changing the channels. The square part hung over the cable/satellite box with the infrared light aligned to shine on the receiver of that box. Was commonly used to extend the range of the remote control to other rooms, so that you could receive the signal on one or more TVs, with only one cable/satellite box. In my case, I used it to extend the signal to my outside SPA, and was able to use the RF device to signal to the receiver, which in turn had the above shown cable plugged into it, that converted the signal to Infrared to work with the cable box. Look around for a couple of cone shaped black plastic like devices, about 6" tall. One will be the transmitter receiving the Infrared signal from a standard remote, and the other will be the receiver, that your cable plugs into. I think there was a power wart as well for each end.
Or it could be your contribution to the recycle bin!

 

[ladelfina]

God, this looks like about a dozen different things I cleared out of my dad's office after he passed. He loved 'gizmos'. He was one of the first to buy (for me, my sister and himself) a few of those early video/phone deals.. the b/w ones that scanned at long intervals, maybe the right description is 'picture phone'... anyway, we could never get them to work, exactly... and I felt soooo guilty tossing the things a few years later.

sorry, not a helpful response.. I'll forward this pic to a geeky friend and see if they know, though.

 

[TromboneAl]

There are no other holes, connectors, or anything else.

It could only have gotten into that box if it came with something I bought, and I never bought any remote extenders.

 

[Rustic23]

anything on the back?

 

[megacorp-firee]

Not a clue ... but it seems that you can safely toss it, since you don't know what it is and obviously haven't used it in quite a while (if at all).

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

i'm not sure but i think it is a modern version of a flail. you should not attempt to bring that onto an airplane with you.

 

[Kwirk]

I'm basically with whitestick. I think it's a cable mouse. They often are included with VCRs, TVs, etc, to control the cable box.

For example, you control your VCR with the VCR remote and this gizmo changes the channel as needed on your cable box. The idea is that you need one less remote control but I suspect most of them sit in boxes and drawers.

 

[RetiredGypsy]

Looks sort of probe-like to me. Been having any weird dreams lately? Lights through your window, levitating, that kind of thing?

 

[retire@40]

AM antenna

 

[ERD50]

Did you ask Mrs Trombone?

-ERD50

 

[ladelfina]

got a response from a geeky Italian friend:

It could be a remote trigger for a camera, little used today. Or a trigger for a secondary flash, that is, a gadget that connects to a stand-alone flash not connected to the camera and that, when it sees the primary flash (see that in the photo there appears to be a little transparent sensor), it makes the second flash go off, providing light from a different position, for example to cancel out part of the shadow caused by the first flash.

 

[clifp]

A recharger for a terminator unit. I'm pretty sure it was made after the Auto driving plug-in Priusus went on strike in 2045.

 

[UncleHoney]

OMG, you didn't touch that thing, did you? Evacuate the house and call 911.

Like whitestick said it's a remote ir transmitter that your cable box or satellite receiver uses to turn on a vcr. That way you only have to program one gizzmo to come on at the right time to tape something.

 

[calmloki]

Every time i see this thread i think of the Benny Hill dumb bunny line "what is this thing called, love".

 

[Arc]

Looks like an Early Retirometer. I think you stick it somewhere and if the light turns green you are good to ER. Good luck with that!

 

[M Paquette]

I was cleaning out a box of old cables, eliminating the one's I'll never use again, and came across this. I have no idea what it is, do you?

"IR Blaster"

It's an infrared emitter (light) that lets one gadget control another gadget. The bar-shaped part slides under the gadget to be controlled, with the LED (that shiny little bump on the wedge shaped part) pointing at the infrared sensor on the gadget to be controlled. The other end of the cord has a piece that looks like an earphone jack, and that plugs into the device that will do the controlling.

These were often packaged with video recorders to control cable tuner boxes, and with 'smart TVs' that got off-the-air program guides to control video recorders. Sony and Mitsubishi both shipped these gadgets as part of a 'smart TV' system.

 

[shoe]

I showed the picture to my husband who likes electronics and he said it looks like a Bluetooth anal probe. I thought he was joking, so I Google Imaged it and, well, there ARE similarities.

 

[Janet H]

I think it runs this

 

[W2R]

I was cleaning out a box of old cables, eliminating the one's I'll never use again, and came across this. I have no idea what it is, do you?

Frank says it is a remote pause switch for one of the old 1970's era VCR's. He said it with conviction, so I think he has got it!

 

[TromboneAl]

The IR Blaster idea sounds the most likely. The shape is perfect. Note that there are four connectors on that 1/8" plug -- I wouldn't expect that many if it was just turning the LED on/off.

But in any case, it's going in the trash...

 

[chinaco]

It looks like an extension to enable a VCR to be controlled by a cable box. Older cable boxes (before DVR) had the ability to select a show (uisng the tv schedule menu) to record and turn on the VCR when the show started (instead of programming the timer on the VCR).